Kai had just reached his office and turned on his TV when he heard the news. And was he pissed. He immediately called for Alistair. "I want two people on a plane to Amesbury NOW! They were attacked just hours ago. I'll brief them on their way there, and I'll need you to fill them in on werewolf behavior..."

*Video feed on the plane, briefing to the two people.*

"Ok, first things first, don't expect a warm welcome. This pack does not like the Coalition, and with good reason. I've made some amends with them, so they don't hate us as much. Apparently, they've been bombed. Don't expect them to cooperate very much, they have a very powerful mage by the name of Yuri Romanov to do most of the heavy lifting when they need it.

Your mission is to go there and find what you can. Try to capture those responsible. No doubt they'll want them dead. I want to interrogate them. If or when you capture them, contact me immediately. Jun will be your eyes and ears on this end. He'll research whatever you need and disclose locations of people. Including Yuri. He works fast, so you'll have to play catch up. Alistair will now brief you on the relevant werewolf behaviors in this situation. Good luck."

*Undisclosed location*

The boy, with his mouth wide open, relaxed in the chair as two small robots put in two teeth in. Right in front on the bottom row. Several others crawled around his body, repairing any lingering damage. He felt three figures come forth. He knew them.

Christine, a blue haired woman with jaw length hair. Six feet and five inches tall, she made him feel short. "Got him, Alexei number 2. Also picked her up while I was at it."

The robots at his mouth left, since they were done. "Enjoy your stay, Amarius? I told you you shouldn't try that to help your friend. Now you've caused us some trouble. In fact, we're even behind schedule now because of your stunt. Please try to listen this time." His voice showed irritation and annoyance. He wasn't able to kill Annabell. But hopefully he did enough damage to put her out of commission for a while.

Now he waited for a response from the troublemaker. Maybe some input from their other guest...

*Amesbury*

Two wolves stopped two people from even coming into the city. "Identification and reason for being here." Once known that they were from the Coalition, they were escorted into the city. And that escort was getting heavier as they went.

Angel, inside a tent looking at a beaten and burned Connor, looked up when she felt them. She was overly hostile. "What the hell do you want?"

Alistair got the message and came right away. "I'll go myself." Alistair started. He was told never to come back but he didn't give a shit. That was until he recieved a phone call. He answered it, and his face darkened. "Kai. Amarius escaped." He said, squeezing the phone in his hand a slight to hard. "I'll send the new kid and my second in command. I'm going after Amarius."

*On the Plane.*

Serena sat watching the video screen as Kai talked to them about what had happened. Alistair had given her a file on werewolves and she was told to share the info with Tatatomo. She was confused as to why he'd sent her since they were still processing her application and hadn't done her physical he simply said there was no other choice. He couldn't go and she was strong enough to fend for herself. She was slightly worried because it put her cover into question if she had to fight at full effectiveness, but the longer it took her to gather intel on the coalition the longer it would take the Serion to attack something she was slightly pleased about.

"Actually sir, I think Alistair's already left. He gave me this file explaining werewolf behaviour instead. Anyway, we'll do our best." She had already read the file so she passed it to tatatomo. It simply explained how pack mechanics worked, that just because they were growling at you didn't mean they intended to eat you and how to try be as calm as possible. Getting hostile with their alpha would be a bad idea.

*Undisclosed Location.*

Amarius strolled in, smirking despite the fact that he was still recovering from his capture. His right hand was burnt an still useless and didn't seem to be recovering. Hanna walked a few steps behind him her face focused on a holo tablet. She was to burried in her research to care what was going on. When she tripped Amarius slowed to walk beside her and direct her with his good hand.

"You really should watch where your going Ms Ashe." Amarius said chuckling. her brows furrowed then she gave a staggered reply. "I am to busy.... To watch where I'm going... Why was I dragged out here... Research doesn't complete itself...." Amarius looked at Alexai. "I'll let you answer that since it does seem unnecessary to drag her all the way from sweden for this."

When Alexai started talking about how unnecessary his last stunt was Amarius chuckled. "Maybe it caused you trouble but it was worth it. If Ms Ashe is successful in her research, and trust me she's made headway, I think setbacks wont be a problem. Besides, The Mountain delivered, and I'm loose. And don't think they got anything from me, I've been tortured for longer, and it was far worse than anything they tried. And I didn't speak back then. Hanna explain your research to Alexai, so he knows it's valuable."

She looked up with irritation. "Simply put I'm going to take normal powerless humans and turn them into gods. It worked with me. I can enhance powers, and I can also transfer from one being to another, killing the doner in the process. When its successful the creature is completely loyal thanks the removal of free will, and a chip that makes them respond to my voice or anyone who I program into it, so you or Amarius. I'll send you the relevant data explaining everything you need to know. Can I go back to work now?" She said, the longer she made eye contact the more annoyed she became.

Amarius patted her on the back. "See, doesn't that sound fun? an army of perfect humans to do our bidding." Then he smiled. "You look a little irritated, how did your hunt go?"

*Cairo.*

Kain paced the small room, the tv in the back ground drowning out the sounds of his heavy foot steps. He picked up his phone, and rang yuri for the third time. It went to voicemail again. This time he left a message. "Anabell's been attacked, nearly killed by some mage hunter. I need your help hunting the bastard-" He heard the words amesbury and bomb on the tv. He turned to watched the news, realised his freinds home had been destroyed. out of pure, uncharacteristic rage kain launched a chunk of ice at the tv exploding it. "Damnit, I see why your busy now. I'm going after this son of a bitch, don't die." He hung up. Looks like he was flying solo on this one.

*Amesbury.*

They landed in the city, and before they got two foot from the runway they were intercepted by a pair of wolves. She followed Alistair's file to the letter, lowering her eyes and raising her hands slightly. All the while thinking how interesting humanity was, even on earth there was so many different kinds of living beings, not to mention they had so many different spiritual ones that popped in from multiple dimension.

"I'm Serena Des'ana." She said. Slowly she pulled out her Id and handed it to them. "The Coalition sent us. We're here to examine the crime scene." She looked at Tatatomo. Then they were told to follow. As they got closer to the library more and more wolves appeared around them. She appeared nervous but really she was calm. She was to busy thinking. Earth really had allot of problems. In her home world crime was unheard of, because who needed to steal food? No one. There was very little in fighting. The worst the Arc Mechanica had to deal with was rebels and they rarely raised their head for fear of the Machine lord.

They reached a tent and we greeted by a very angry lady standing over a badly injured young man. His wounds were terrible. Serena visibly recoiled and she hesitated to answer. But she did speak up eventually. "I, I can help him." She said. "If you let me I can heal him now.. I just need a bit of space and maybe not so many people in here...." She trailed off.

Tadatomo Fukushima had made haste to the Coalition's airfield as soon as he had gotten the message from Alistair. Something had happened in England, and was demanding the Coalition's immediate attention. There was a jet fueled and flight-ready by the time he got there. Also present at the jet awaiting him was a young girl. She greeted him cordially. She introduced herself as Serena Des'Ana, stated that she was assigned to accompany him to England, and that they were to board immediately to receive briefing en route. "Acknowledged." Tadatomo boarded the jet and stowed Kurato, his trusty sword, in one of the overhead racks. He and Serena then proceeded to the conference room at the front of the aircraft, just behind the cockpit. There was a link set up to Kai Allard-Liao, the Commander of the Coalition, on the screen.

Kai explained the situation to the two of them. Tadatomo calmly digested the information they were given, about the bombing in a city known as Amesbury, as well as the werewolf pack that called the library home. Tadatomo glanced thoughtfully at Serena when she mentioned that Alistair already left for somewhere. Amaurius, he thought, he's the only reason that Alistair would forgo something like this. Tadatomo ended the briefing with a simple "Acknowledged." He gazed inwardly as he thought. Tadatomo had dealt with one werewolf before, Alistair. He turned to regard Serena. He had heard mention of the name before, but she had just been accepted into the Coalition. It seemed strange to assign such a raw recruit to a mission as volatile as this. However, Tadatomo trusted Alistair's judgment to be dead on, as always. Besides, the elder werewolf had noted that she had prodigious talent and resourcefulness. Smiling inwardly to himself at Alistair's uncanny ability to get pretty much everything right, Tadatomo excused himself and took his seat, studying the werewolf file intently.

Tadatomo and Serena were accosted almost immediately after touchdown. Serena introduced herself first and informed them of their mission. Tadatomo admired the recruit's initiative, but gave her a subtle look as if to say, "Check your privelege, young lady." He turned to the welcoming committee. He produced his own ID and spoke flatly, not a trace of fear or alarm in his voice or expression."Tadatomo Fukushima, second-in-command of the CDHCD. We wish to inspect the bomb-site."

The two were led towards the library. Tadatomo noticed Serena looking visibly unsettled. He whispered in her ear. "Calm yourself, remember our intel. Show no fear." They reached a medical tent, where a visibly irritated female medic turned to them, anger at being disturbed etched on her face. Tadatomo looked directly into her eyes, no trace of fear. "My name is Tadatomo Fukushima, and this is Serena Des'Ana. We are here on behalf of the Coalition to investigate what has happened here and try to capture those responsible." Serena interrupted, claiming to be able to heal the stricken man that the medic was working on. Tadatomo was about to protest, but decided to hold it back and see how this would play out, planning his moves swiftly and meticulously. He turned to Serena. "How exactly do you plan to do that? His wounds are incredibly severe."

"I'm coming with. Amarius is too big of a threat to go after him alone. Obviously he has some friends. Another trip to Europe we go..."

*Amesbury*

Angel glared harshly at the two. "You should have seen him when we drug him out of the rubble. He'll be fine now with some rest and allowing his natural regeneration take over. Yuri spent a good hour with his healing spell on him. Either way, you're not touching him. Natasha, the file please." A woman in the back came to her with a 1/4th inch thick stack of paper in a folder and handed it to her. "The disk in there shows the video footage. It also contains information on the survivors and the bomb. We're still looking into it, but we're not gonna give you any more information. Oh, and they die. By our hand or yours. There is no capture. Besides, you should be focusing on Amarius. Yuri mentioned the giant man said something about him. Your escort will take you to the bomb site if you wish, but beyond that, only other place you'll go is out of town or the airport. Good day." Shoving the file into the man's hands, the escort will do exactly that.

Werewolves were more durable than normal. Once out of critical condition, they were like normal humans. Connor was just out of that. Angel's own right arm was burnt, but no where near as much now. She would sit with the pup. He was lucky. The three that protected her and three that ambushed one of them weren't...same with several others. But at least this young one was fine...he was the favorite to succeed her when the time came...

*Undisclosed Location*

"You're being moved. The Hunter's Association meeting is in Sweden. Actually not far from where you were. I don't want you anywhere near a bloodthirsty Yuri. Worse case, he'll cause collateral damage that would destroy half the research, minimum. If Amarius had stayed hidden, we wouldn't have had to leverage Mountain and Cinder nor have the Coalition breathing down our necks. I, and the Keeper, especially don't want Kai or Yuri to discover my existence. So please understand why I don't share your enthusiasm.

I am aware of the research...it's why I have her here. And I brought you back from your prison to resurrect the original Alexei. The army would be nice, but that isn't a concern of mine. So when or if we even get to that point, you two are the main commanders. Maybe even Christine. Blame the programming done on me for my lack of care about it. Remember my directive is to combine your two research for a renewed Alexei Romanov. It will be the same for the other clone should I somehow get killed."

He hated having to repeat himself. He looked his body, still under repair. "I knew Annabell would be a pain in the ass. But she learned some new tricks since I've been away. Namely a rather interesting Limit Break spell...funny how those reflect the users quite well. Yuri's Ragnarok...Kai's Ion Cannon...even my own BlackHole. Anyway, I'm gonna take a cruise in the Mediterranean to start work on phase two. Hanna, I want you to move your research to North Korea. That's were the original me is buried and you'll have cheaper subjects to use. Not to mention easier to grab. Christine will be your guard. Amarius, I'm gonna make some dummies of you. Please for all that is sadistic and bloody...stay out of sight."

The shirtless boy walked to the other dark sorcorer and put his hand on his chest, muttering several things in Russian and Latin. Soon, from Amarius's body came several dummies that looked exactly like him. "They're only a quarter power of you, but they'll keep them busy for a while." With that, he dismissed them.

*Berlin*

Yuri was taking a break from torturing the last of a Hunter group when he checked his messages. Kain finally left a message, apparently just getting the news. He already knew what he meant. He called the man back up. "I know about Annabell. Give the douche an extra stabbing or five for me. Good luck." He didn't particularly like Annabell...but she was good to have around on occasions like this. Whoever was orchestrating this knew when and where to strike. He didn't like it.

Either way, he walked back into the room. With a very peculiar helmet. "Now, I know you have a Hunter's Association meeting in a couple weeks. What are the chances Cinder and Mountain will be there?" He grinned at the sight of the naked woman with needles shoved underneath her fingernails, which were desolving along with the tips of her fingers. There were other things shoved in her body that would induce incredible amounts of pain. She was close to breaking...Yuri could taste it...

*Five days later*

The clone stood at the balcony of his yaht, listening to the screams of the crew being killed. He sighed heavily. At least he got a good start on phase two. He had already sent the data to Christine, Hanna, and Amarius. Turning around, he stayed leaning on the railing, looking at his dirty fingernails. "So...how did I piss you off and who are you?" The lad looked up to see the figure, covered in blood. He somehow reminded him of the woman he just tried to kill in Cairo. He had the sneaking suspicion that he might have jinxed himself back when they met up....

Alistair nodded. "Thats fine, I'd suggest you stay here and i'll call you when i find him but i have a feeling you'll say no."

*Amesbury.*

Serena dropped her head slightly dissapointed and upset at not being able to help someone in need. "It doesn't matter. I'll explain it later." She said to Tadatomo. She assumed Tadatomo would go to the bomb site after, where she would be some real help since she specialised in explosives. She'd just have to be careful how she went about it.

They reached the bomb site, and she looked at the place it had been planted. It was a wonder anyone survived this blast. Based on the radius of destruction there was quite some power behind it, it would have to have been allot of their human explosive to do this. She calculated the payload in her head then spoke.

"Based on the radius of destruction the explosive used must have been close to a ton worth of tnt. So where can someone pick up a pretty high powered explosive off the top of your head? I'm guessing thats where we start our search, Sir.." She said sheepishly. If he asked how she knew she would just change the subject and hope he didn't persue it.

*Undisclosed Location*

Hanna looked back up briefly. "If Amarius had stayed hidden, the coalition would be all over my Facility right now. Thanks to him I had time to destroy some loose ends that stopped that happening." She said. "Exactly. Now you might have freed me but remember, I've chosen to help you. Yuri doesn't have a clue about you, he thinks the sinners freed me and I told the coalition as much. Thats all I told them. I might be old but i'm not bat shit crazy yet, I made a calculated call and we can sort it out. I'll stay out of sight from now on, I need to rest and get some energy back anyway."

Alexai said he was going to make dummies and Amarius nodded. As he was doing it though Amarius added his own spell to allow him to take direct control of any of the Dummies when ever he felt like it. He would lead the coalition so far astray they'd be in the Antarctica looking for him when this was done.

Tadatomo chose not to pursue either more info from the medic or a better explanation from Serena. Instead, he simply nodded and stalked after the person that was leading them to the blast site. They arrived and Tadatomo knew instantly that it was no ordinary bomb. It was a large bomb. The largest he'd ever seen. He was about to speak, when Serena interrupted him, with a preternaturally swift assessment of the situation. His own assessment was essentially the same as hers, but how she came to it so soon was another story. But yet again, Tadatomo decided to let it go again, seeing how things play out.

After a thorough examination of the crime scene, Tadatomo decided that a little help was in order. He took out his phone and called Jun Tomoshibi, their handler in on this op. "Jun, Tadatomo. We got rough specifications on the explosive device, amended with our own findings, along with video footage of the incident and info on the survivors. Do what you can and let me know what you pull up." Tadatomo thought for a moment, then turned to Serena. "We also need the location of Yuri Romanov. He fought one of the attackers. He may know something. Something we need."

Kai surveyed the area. He felt two lingering powers. One obviously Amarius's, the other someone else. "Alistair, what's your nose say? Are you getting two people too?" He looked over at the bullet holes. Whoever it was, single-handedly took on fifty soldiers, half of which were advent humans. And on the eve that the man was going to be transfered to New York, where he would have significant resistance, even when Kai wasn't there.

What was more, they were a pistolier, it seemed. One shot, every victim. What little video they did get showed two pistols, but failed to get anything else. Not even a gender. He hoped Alistair's nose could pick up at least that...

*New York*

"Heyo." Jun listened to Tadatomo. He hated being stuck in New York. But oh well. At least Kai gave him a role in this matter, which made him very happy. He blinked. Seriously? "That's nice and all...but what can I do without information? A video feed? Really? Come on man, get to a Coalition outpost, and put the video onto the server so that I can access it and be of some help. Or names. Something."

Luckily, the guy hadn't hung up, so he heard the bit about Yuri. He grinned. "WAIT! Now that I can help with. But call me back when you're well away from any Cujos."

*Amesbury*

The female escort from earlier, growled at the man's phone. "Tell the brat to leave the dog jokes alone." As before, they would escort them wherever, so long as it was out of town or the airport.

*Back in New York, if Tada/Serena are away from the werewolves and called back*

"He's in Berlin, Germany. Kai wasn't kidding when he said the guy works fast. He bugged out of there an hour and a half after the bomb exploded. I've been doing some digging, it seems that there's a Hunter group there...the closest one actually. They've since missed four people. My guess is he's kidnapping and torturing them for information. Luckily, we're a step ahead of him. I found there's a Hunter's Association meeting/party in a couple weeks in Sweden. No doubt he'll be there. I'll keep you updated as he moves. Oh, I also noticed something around the time of the attack. Something in the atmosphere around there was screwing up with our sensors. So we have literally nothing in the way of spiritual activity around there. I'll see what I can get with anything you give me."

*Five days later two hours? after the blackHole spell activated*

Yuri was busy making an alias. He had the news on, and had an unsettling feeling in his gut. It was playing what just transpired mere hours ago. The Blackhole Limit Break Spell. The very thought of it having been used sent chills down his spine. He knew of one person that could use it...though with Amarius around, he was also a contender, and only viable because he wasn't dead.

He suddenly heard something on his window. He looked and saw Alice hitting it. He opened it up in a blink of an eye. "Alice! What are you doing here?! Please tell me Kain wasn't involved with that!" He pointed at the TV screen...

*Elsewhere in France*

"Can anything else go wrong?" Kai muttered to himself as he watched the news. He had insisted on Alistair coming with him to the bar to relax a little bit for another hard days work of investigations. Alex had no luck with the TERC...it seemed like these people were very smart, or knew they had it.

Alistair sniffed the air, it still stank of blood, death and fear. He nodded to Kai. "Yeah, Amarius didn't break himself out considering the condition he was in. Who ever did this was powerful. And based on the smells in the area, a woman." He continued to sniff around and caught a scent that led him to a single blue hair. "I've got a hair here Kai. We should send it to Alexander and see if he can get a dna identification on this woman." Alisitair said.

*amesbury bomb site*

Serena listened to the conversation while continuing to look around. She heard Jun mention something about their sensors being messed with. Well, interesting to know they had long range sensory devices. They could probably detect serion energy if they were so inclined to look for it. Still, she wondered what had blocked the signal. If she had more time she could probably do a few scans and see if she could locate the source of the disturbance, but maybe she could get her hands on some of Jun's data at the HQ and see if she could use it to identify the interference if it occurred again while they were out. For now all they could do was kill time and head to the HQ. She waited for tadatomo to give the order, since he was in command and she didn't want to step out of line by taking over suddenly again.

*days later*

An exausted Alice finally located Yuri. She slammed her little ice fists against the window until he finally opened them and half fell into the room as she assumed a more human, adult sized form. Exausted, and holding back tears of grief, she answered Yuri. "He's dead, Kain's dead." She said. "Annabell's attacker was a clone of your brother. He said there were more, and they're trying to bring back the real one. He's also working with Amarius and someone else. Hanna.. was her name." She fell into a chair. "I don't know what happened to Kain's body, but some how I'm still here. I don't have much power, so I'll fade away without a host. But I want to help you in any way i can before that. Kain would have wanted me too. And maybe you'll be able to avenge him for me."

*elsewhere in france.*

Alistair shrugged. " Well, we could be invaded by a mysterious machine race trying to clear the planet of humans for our precious metals..." He said, smiling a little. "Yeah I think thats unlikely too.. Well atleast we got something to go on. And If i'm right, based on Amarius' condition when he was broken out he wont be causing trouble any time soon. And on the bright side, no arrancar or sinner have raised their ugly heads in a while. Even the hollow seem less inclined to mess with our planet. Its strange. A little worrying really." The last time he'd seen a sinner was when they took amarius out, and there was one fighting Jun. She hadn't even seemed all that interested in killing anyone, as if she were playing with the boy. Well, hopefully they stay silent for a while longer.

(OOC: Suddenly color change due to a new arrival on my roster)AmesburyTadatomo turned to the escort and spoke bluntly. "We're done here. My subordinate and I are leaving now." Without a second glance to either the escort or Serena, Tadatomo made for the airport. En route, Tadatomo considered their next destination. He called Jun back once he and Serena arrived back at the jet and the escort had left. "Tadatomo. We're clear of the werewolves. You had something on Romanov?" Tadatomo listened intently to Jun's brief on the current situation and whereabouts of Yuri Romanov. He stroked his chin thoughtfully but his face remained expressionless. "Fascinating. We'll head to the Coalition facility in Berlin then. I will upload the data file I've compiled to the server from the plane. I will contact you again from there." Tadatomo closed communications and boarded the jet. He spoke to the pilot before taking his seat. "We need to go to Berlin. The Coalition facility there. Best possible speed." The pilot acknowledged the order and began take-off procedures.

En route to BerlinOnce they were in the air, Tadatomo made himself a cup of tea, offered one to Serena, and made one for her too if she accepted. He then sat down at the Coalition up-link console and began to upload the information they collected to the server for Jun. While that was happening, Tadatomo thought for a little while about the situation so far. They hadn't turned up enough to go on yet, but hopefully Jun could look at the data and pull up something they didn't see. He turned to regard Serena for a second before speaking. "What's your take on the mission so far? Thoughts?"Tadatomo listened carefully to her reply. "Well it's early days yet. For what it's worth, your performance has been satisfactory. Still a bit naive, but that goes away with experience." Tadatomo said nothing else for the rest of the journey.

Berlin, Coalition FacilityTadatomo headed straight for the secretarial desk. He flashed his ID. "I need an empty briefing room with a line to the New York facility." The secretary made a call, then directed Tadatomo to his requested room. He entered and placed his stuff on the table. He opened communications to Jun. "Report. Give me everything."

Yuri hugged her tight. "Knowing my brother, he'll continue his projects through the clones. Whatever ones assigned to this one dies. Everyone involved...Mountain, Cinder...this Hanna person...I'll avenge Kain and my wolves. I got the lead I needed...there's not much more you can do before you fade...just keep faith in me..." Despite his hard eyes, tears were coming down his face. He kept her in a hug until she faded. Then he called Kai.

*France*

"I couldn't agree more. Now, to contact-" Kai's phone rang. Once he saw the number, which plainly spelled Yuri using letters, he motioned Alistair to follow him to a private space. "Yuri. This is unusual."

"You remember Kain? He's dead. I'm sure you just saw it on the TV. Annabell is in critical condition, from the same person and is the reason Kain went searching for them. My brother isn't as dead as we all thought. He has clones are running around. Their goal is to resurrect my brother, though I doubt that's all. Amarius is one of the keys. The other one is likely a woman named Hanna. Don't know anything else. Might want to do some serious investigations on some serious crimes and/or experiments. Don't know where and don't care, I'll look for her when the time comes. My concern are the hunters, then the clone or clones assigned to this project, and then her." He hung up.

Kai's jaw was clenched and he had paled a little bit. "Well...that explains why the TERC isn't picking up anything. One of the things Alexei was known for was his Dark Miasma...it severely hindered sensors around him when he spread it like a fog. If he upgraded it, it's not surprising he can cover such a wide area. To think he has clones running around...this just got several times worse. Contact Serena and Tadatomo, give them a heads up on what's going on. Their orders are unchanged, but should they see a black haired man with the same eyes as Yuri, to get away from him and call us directly. I'll contact Alex to search for incidents like the one Yuri described."

*New York*

Jun answered the man. "Yeah, I don't have much more about them. I guess Mountain saved Cinder a long time ago and took her under his wing. She became known as Cinder for her fire abilities, as you've seen on the video. Mountain's force is rather popular in the underground syndicates...so long as they don't mind a bit of brutality. I even have a popular number they use. They also have some ties with the Hunter's Association and is responsible for wiping out at least two other werewolf packs and crippling others. Most of which weren't known for being peaceful anyway, but still. Cinder herself was born here in New York, but got captured by human traffickers. That's how she and Mountain met. He was working for said traffickers and promptly killed them...like, all of them. That's all I got. So the best lead you have is Sweden or finding Yuri. He's since hidden his spiritual pressure, so we have nothing. I've already worked out some forgeries on invitations.

This is a tie and suit event, so you better have a Container or similar device for your weapons. Or if Serena's still has capacity, use her version. If you don't already have a suit and a dress, buy one. No hardened werewolf hunter will talk to you if you have guns and swords out threatening to kill them. Security is...really tight. But Yuri is also a master of disguise and is a spy, so yeah. Mountain and Cinder aren't known to attend these events, but they do have a person or two attend in their steads. I bet they are Yuri's primary targets. Just the same, I wouldn't touch the drinks or food. He'll probably poison them, nab his targets, torture them until they die, and then be on his merry little way. From what I gathered from Kai's little statements in his file. Oh, I also have the street addresses for where Yuri has been in, I'm giving you them now..."

*At one of those street addresses*

One of Yuri's victims was pinned to the chair, not quite dead. His finger and toe tips were bone by now. And his genitals were missing. Various other pieces of him as well. But there was small, white magic circle on a piece of paper above him, healing him. A scribe with a limited amount of power. It would ensure he would survive. But his mind...he had a black, medieval like helmet on. One of Alexei's torture devices. Made specifically to completely mindf*ck the wearer until insanity. Every. Single. One. Had one of these on their heads. Effectively making each one useless.

*4 days later. Sweden*

Yuri stood on the roof of a building, bundled up. Waiting for his mysterious caller. He felt one person behind him, behind a large chimney stack. He kept his face expressionless when an equally bundled up Alexei appeared in front of him. "Hello Yuri. Long time no see..."

"Cut the crap. Why did the other clone order an attack on Amesbury? They were your family too! I know you plan on bringing the original back...surely you could have made a different distraction for getting Amarius out."

"Most of us clones don't care. We were programmed only to care about the project we were assigned. It's unfortunate one of us touched them. I know I'll die for it, too. Luckily, I'm the last clone assigned to this project."

"That's nice to know. So, what's Hanna doing?"

"Hanna Ashe is the other key factor here. I'm sure you've already guessed that. A renewed original is the goal. Combining her research and Amarius's necromancy to achieve it. Unfortunately, she's in need of some stronger subjects. I'm gonna use you and the Hunter's Association as bait. Just thought I'd give you some fair warning." Alexei left with that.

The man waited for the dummy to catch up. "He might have already spilled out my existance to the Coalition and about Hanna, though no sirname. But he won't cooperate with them again until the big showdown. If there is one. Likely there will be. The plan is simple. An hour in, the President of the Hunter's Association will start a speech. I crash the party, you start killing the guards outside. Hopefully I can coax the Coalition members undoubtly on Yuri's tail into fighting me. Once you're done, choose your target and capture him or her while I keep the other one busy. We'll see how it turns out in then."

(ooc: if you want the dummies out and about beyond this one, by all means.)

Alice faded soon after. But she did so believing Yuri would make it right. It was nice to see that Kain had made atleast one freind before he died. She was happy leaving now.

*france*

Alistair listened to Kai's phone call taking in all the info as he sipped at some cider. When kai hung up he began to explain the situation. "A pity about the Assassin. He was a good fighter. Probably could have done with his help again." Alistair said. "I'll contact them now." He said and pulled out his phone. It rang twice and the Serena answered. "Alistair, is something wrong?" She said.

He explained the situation and told her to fill in her CO, then hung up. "I though of something too. I was reading through old files when you first hired me, taking a look back at my predecessors work. There was some interesting stuff, a traitor arrancar who'd previously worked for the coalition, a man that couldnt die and a scientist who was brought in for unlawful experimentation on her own daughter. She escaped soon after by killing her guard because they underestimated how dangerous she actually was. My point is, I think we need Alex to find and send us that file. I don't remember the name, but i'm pretty sure its this Hanna person."

*En route to berlin*

As they settled into the flight Tadatomo went to make tea. He offered her a cup and she politely declined. "I'm not thirsty, thank you." While he was up, the phone rang and she picked it up. It was Alistair with extra information on the meeting. As soon as he was done he hung up and she turned to tadatomo. "Alistair just called. We're to watch out for a man who has a similar physical appearance to Yuri romanov, but with black hair and very similar eyes. If we find him we're not to engage him in combat."

He asked her a question after and she considered it. "Honestly it bewilders me how many enemies the coalition actually has. I mean, before I joined up I really though their sole purpose was to defend humans from hollow and regulate the special ones. I wasn't expecting werewolves and dark mages and freakish man mountains all fighting for reasons I can't even begin to fathom. You humans are exceedingly violent, more so than i've ever realised." Then she blushed a little. "Well, i mean... Not you.. No offence.." He complimented her preformance and she smiled.

*Berlin*

They arrived, checked in and headed straight to a conference room to talk with Jun. Serena took a back seat on the conversation and listened with interest. The thing that was most notable about the mountain and cinder was despite his major disregard for life, he went well out of his way to save her. "Cinder must be very important to him if he did that. If we captured her he might be convinced to surrender... Or go on a violent killing spree to make a point... Never mind." The suit and tie thing also sounded interesting.

This would be her first look into formal human life. Albiet a screwed up version of it. Atleast the dress up would be fun. "I have capacity for more weapons. I can hold onto anything you need." She said to tadatomo.

*Swedish mountains.*

Gaige was finally at her mothers facilty, monitoring Laura's work on her artemis. She waited, slightly impatient as the other girl set up Gaige's scanning nodes. Something didn't feel right. The area was to quiet. the lack of guards confused her. But then again maybe it was a precation was to avoid attracting attention. Gaige wasn't sure. She waited for Laura to return.

*China*

Hanna walked through the slightly busier halls of the new facilty. Since Amarius and alexai joined her cause work had increased tenfold thanks to all the new funding. She didn't like all of these new scietists around but as long as they kept out of her way she didn't care. She found herself heading towards the holding cells once more, to check up on her new guest.

Amarius, the real one, was already there. She looked him up and down questioningly and he smiled. "Good day hanna, how are you?" He asked as he stared into one of her reiatsu supression pods, where a silver blond haired woman floated in the special liquid that sustained life but also suppressed all reiatsu flow. She could become concious but she wouldn't be able to escape. "Why are you in here Amarius?" She asked. "Just admiring your newest little test subject." He said. "How long do you think she was in the ice?"

Hanna considered it for a moment before answering. "Based on the dept and ice samples, About 1000 years. It was a miracle we found her at all. I can't wait to see what secrets she holds of ancient power. And when I'm done, I think I'll take her powers for myself." Hanna said, smiling. "Or you could let me have her? It would be nice to have a freind who's spent most of their life trapped away from the world." Amarius said. Hanna scoffed. "Don't be so Foolish. You can have whats left of the corpse... And the sister, She's no use to me at all."

*4 days later, Sweden*

The dummy was being controlled Directly by Amarius. Hanna wanted no mistakes and she didn't trust magic alone. He would get it done, and besides, in control the dummy had more power than without him, and he didn't expect the coalition to have sent slouches. Now it was just a matter of waiting for the guests to arrive and the fun to begin.

Tadatomo listened to Jun's report, taking in everything the young man said, while also still considering something he noticed on the plane here. You humans are so violent. Serena had said. Fascinating, Tadatomo thought, but it can wait. She does not appear to be a direct threat. Jun finished his diatribe and Tadatomo stood up and bowed politely. "Acknowledged. We will make the necessary preparations for infiltration. I will report in again just prior to the event. In the mean time, we will split up and investigate some of these addresses. End transmission." Tadatomo turned to Serena. "We will investigate these addresses first. Alistair has faith in your abilities, and I have always trusted his judgement. I do not believe you will fail. Choose half of the addresses. I will take the others. Stay in contact. We will meet back here in 4 days. Good luck." With that, Tadatomo waited for Serena to choose her addresses, then took down the remainder to his PDA. Bowing politely, he then left to conduct his mission.

Berlin(4 days later)

Tadatomo waited in his assigned quarters. He had uncovered some interesting details at some of the addresses. Some were simply used for temporary accommodation. Others were used for far more gruesome purposes. He was notified that Serena had returned and checked in. He had her summoned to the briefing room again. Once there, he bowed politely at her entrance. "Serena. It is agreeable to see you again. Report your findings." He waited patiently for her explanation.

Swedish Mountains

Laura move at a brisk pace. She was on a mission to plant Gaige's scanning nodes around the perimeter of the facility where Gaige's tracker had led them. Liv had wanted to help, but Laura's speed had made her a preferable solo operative. So Liv was waiting alongside Gaige who was monitoring Laura with her internal computer. Liv was slightly anxious. While she knew Laura could take care of herself, Liv still wished to be with her to protect her should something go wrong. She waited patiently for an update. Then Laura's voice crackled over her earpiece. "All done here. I'm making my way back." Laura stood up from the last scanning node and proceeded back to base. Liv breathed a silent sigh of relief as the young redhead arrived back to their scout point. "Okay, so what have we got?"

China

Elsa stirred in her enforced slumber. She wondered if this was death, just a murky swamp of non-feeling. But she could hear voices. The voices seemed distant, far away and muffled, as if coming from another outside of her world. She wondered about Anna, if she was here somewhere in this sludgy purgatory. She opened her eyes and tried to see as far as she could. There were figures in front of her. They were humanoid, though she could not make out features. Elsa tried to move, but she was restrained by something which kept her whole body immobile. She tried to use her powers, but they were being suppressed somehow. Elsa's last thought was of her sister again, before she drifted back into a soothing slumber.

Alex had sent the file to them. Hanna Ashe. He hoped the mercenaries and arrancar that was in the Swedish Mountains would still be there when he arrived, that was where some unusual human tafficking activity was a little rampant. He had stated that as well. He wouldn't get there until after some Hunter Association party. This was really unusual.

*New York*

Jun waited for a report on the addresses. He really wanted to know what happened...

*Hunter's Association Party*

The atmosphere was chilling. Yuri knew Alexei was nearby. As was another dark sorcorer. Probably Amarius. He was a simple servant with a bland face and coloration. Serving poisoned drinks. It wouldn't effect anyone of any meaningful power, but most of the saps here would be dead by the morning. He had detected an odd signal being emitted by a guest here. He saw his target, but continued on his route to serve drinks. The drone.

A couple of others that he had his attention on was a red haired man and a teenage looking girl. Their intent was different than anyone else's here. Well, the man's was, the girl he couldn't read. Both her movements and her intent. That was...disturbing. There were ways around his Hyper Intuition, but only a robot was completely immune to him. The drone was the other one, but that wasn't surprising.

An hour into the party, the president started his speech...

~

Far above the sky lights of the mansion was Alexei Romanov. With a blue stone that would serve his purpose. He disengaged his Corrupt Disc, making him fall. The black clad teen crashed through the sky light and landed on the podium. Using his left hand, he took out a pistol with a bayonet like dagger on the end and fired. The president fell to the side with his head missing. The wife screamed and started to run. Only for the right hand to bring out a similar pistol and fire, destroying her head as well. By now, the Amarius Dummy should be starting his work.

Standing up on the podium, he spun on his heel. Staring at everyone with his bright cyan eyes and a grin on his face. "Good evening ladies and gentlemen. I am tonight's entertainment!" Using one of the daggers on the pistols, he cut the string on the blue stone, letting it drop. Just as two of his tentacles blocked and took the hearts of the security guards inside. When the tentacles stopped, they had heads that had eaten the hearts. They stayed relatively close and the stone covered the area with some energy/matter indentifying aura.

Two people were green, the drone that he knew was Lucas or whatever and the other a woman next to a red haired man, which wasn't blue compared to most other people here. But only a servant was also completely not blue. Raising an eyebrow, he grinned maliciously. "Interesting...I wonder when the Coalition started using robots to complement its soldiers...might wanna prepare yourselves. Everyone else might wanna clear the area..."

He disappeared, reappearing next to the red haired man. He did a kick towards the middle of the man's back while shooting two bullets at the woman, one aimed at the head and the other at the heart...

Serena had selected her half of the Adresses and admittedly she kind of regretted some of them. While most of the buildings contained rather brutal scenes, there was a draw between two in particular. One, a poor woman had been tortured to death brutally, and left to rot. The other was a room with several human husks, their minds completely destroyed by some strange black helmet. When she finally realised she was not going to get a response she put them out of their misery.

Yuri had kind of hit a nerve with his shear brutality. She didn't know much about him but she didn't like him, and the fact that they weren't ordered to arrest him was kind of disturbing. She understood why he was doing it, but these people hadn't done anything to him. When Tadatomo asked how her mission had went she looked at him and frowned... "He's a brutal son of a bitch... But he's good at staying hidden. I found nothing to say where he is, or is going to be. Beyond the hunter's association. You should probably give Jun a call back."

*Swedish Mountains.*

Laura returned, and Gaige smiled. "Good work corporal. Lets see..." Gaige pressed a few buttons on the laptop she'd brought with her and started the scan. Life force would appear in red. Defenses in green. Entrances blue. The rest was in grey. Soon a 3D map of the whole facility formed. And... It was empty, Except for one single blue blip deep within the facility. "God dammit! She must have moved shop." Gaige typed in a command to scan the one active device in the facility.

"And that's a bomb. Oh no you don't bitch, I'm not losing the only lead I've got on you!" Gaige did few quick commands with her Artemis and hacked into the bomb. Reseting the timer she looked at Laura and Liv. "I can't disarm it from here, I'll have to do it by hand. Liv dearest, stay here in case trouble shows up. Laura you come with me I might need your help. I have to monitor this bomb while i'm working."

*Hunters Association, president's speech.*

Serena was watching everything very carefully. The mountain's man was here somewhere, and so was Yuri. They stuck close together and mingled with some of the guests, and though she smiled there was a few occasions where she almost ripped someone's throat out. These people were sick, talking so nonchalantly about how they slaughtered innocent creatures. Were's, rare animals, anything was game including humans. And then happily bragged about it.

The only reason no one had died yet was because she'd insisted on dancing with Tadatomo when possible. She couldn't bear talking for to long. And now the leader of these creeps was starting to talk. How lovely. As his speech began, Serena was watching out when a man dropped from the skylights. Oh joy. After swiftly killing the speaker and his wife, he spoke. Then he dropped a blue crystal. When he spoke about robots, she looked at Tadatomo confused. "Are you? Never mind I don't care. He's the one we need to be careful of."

The man Attacked them and Serena pulled Tadatomo away from him as he kicked, drawing a pistol she shot the two bullets out of the air. Or not. It was to close range for that to work perfectly. The head shot almost got her, had she not moved slightly. The Bullet sliced a graze across Her nano skin, which sealed up instantly. "Tadatomo I've got this guy. Get to the Mountain's man before Yuri does." She tossed him his guns and drew her own pair.

She unleased a storm of bullets on Alexai from both guns, emptying both clips in a matter of seconds on him as she backed away. She probably winged a few people fleeing the party but she honestly didn't care. She reloaded and backed off, keeping herself between Tadatomo and Alexai as her partner hopefully retreated to continue the mission.

***

Lucius cursed as some mad man dropped out of know where and started killing people. "Sir this whole thing went to shit, I'm withdrawing." He said over his headset. He needed to get his drone away before it was captured, or he could be traced. The mountain hadn't been oblivious to the disappearing hunters over the last few weeks, and he knew well enough they were being tracked. No idea who by though. Lucius wasn't going to stick around, he would die before he spoke but he would rather not die. So he high tailed it for the door, throwing up a black Iron barrier as he did.

***

Amarius dropped from the sky infront of the door and cut the guards there to ribbons with black energy ribbons. More came from the left and right, dark orbs destroyed their heads from behind. Ah, killing was such a fine thing. By the screams, Alexai was having fun. He dropped the blue crystal the man had given him, highlighting the targets. He waited, killing anymore guards as he tried to figure out who was who before going after Hanna's prize.

***

Somewhere in the building, deep in the shadows a being lurked. He could smell the man who killed him, smell his dark energy. The other one was here too... Friend, or foe? He couldn't remember... He prepared to attack. Once there was a good chance.

Tadatomo listened to Serena's report. The report matched his own findings, in that the kidnapped victims were all found with black helmets on them. Scans indicated that they were used to torture the minds of the captured parties, sending them all into insanity. Tadatomo had found one particular scene where the victim had been mutilated beyond recognition. Still, Sweden remained their only lead. "My findings were similar. The scenes were graphic. But his trail is non-existent. The Hunter's Association event seems to be our only option." Tadatomo walked over to the communication console and opened a link to Jun. "Jun. Our investigation of those addresses has turned up nothing useful. The victims were many and varied. They were all found mutilated and wearing some kind of mental torture device. Appearance was of a black medieval helmet. We will proceed to Sweden to investigate the Hunter event. We will report in after. Out."Tadatomo closed the link and turned to Serena. "We must make preparations. This will be interesting."

Swedish Mountains

Laura looked at Gaige with alarm. "But if she's gone, how will we find her?" When Gaige set-up the game-plan, Liv looked anxious. "But what if you need me in there? Alright fine. Just make sure you stay in contact. First sign of trouble, i'ma bust in there. Good luck." Liv hugged the two of them and took off to sweep the perimeter. Laura checked her equipment and then looked back to Gaige with a determined expression on her pale face. "Right. I'm ready when you are." Laura waited for Gaige's word and moved off quickly and silently with her friend, towards the facility.

Hunter's Association Event

Tadatomo walked casually into the building that was hosting the Hunter's Association party. Serena was posing as his partner. He wore a specially modified black tuxedo with a red tie. He had left his guns, Artemis and Apollo, in Serena's container, and his trusty sword, Kurato, was hidden in a hole outside, waiting to be called into action. They blended in reasonably well with the crowds, though Tadatomo sensed a discomfort welling up within his partner on this mission. He whispered quietly in her ear. "Don't let it get to you. These people are scum, but we have a far more critical mission. Steel yourself." He could not of known the irony in his statement. Serena insisted on dancing with him at every opportunity, in order to minimize her time having to deal with the gutless reprobates in the room.

Then the president began his egotistical and uneducated Hunter speech, his wife gazing up at him through a heavily made-up face twisted in sick admiration. The skylight above erupted as a person dropped in and landed right in front of the speaker, and proceeded to shoot him and his ridiculous wife. The man spoke, accusing one of them of being a robot. Tadatomo looked at Serena, who tried to deflect the attention by inquiring about Tadatomo's possible roboticism. Then he suddenly understood her. But that was secondary. As Serena pointed out, the intruder was the person they had been warned by Kai about. Before Tadatomo could formulate a plan, the intruder was on them, Serena dragging him out of the way of a kick before being grazed by a shot from the man's gun. But the wound healed instantly, another indication of Serena's mysterious origins. Tadatomo nodded when she tossed him his guns and told him to go after their primary target. He was hesitant at first to leave her alone against the intruder, but something about her told him she would be alright as he called, "Kurato.", summoning his sword to his hand.

Tadatomo looked around the room as people fled in every direction. He spotted an individual fleeing through a doorway and leaving a barrier behind him. That has to be him. Tadatomo thought. He pushed a hidden button on his modified tuxedo, causing it to fall away instantly, revealing his usual attire, trench-coat and all. He pursued the individual, leaving through the wall beside the doorway after deciding not to risk contact with the barrier. He became aware that he was not the only one pursuing this individual.

"It's one of Alexei's creations, based on your description. We all thought all of them were used...they're single use thank goodness. Still, Yuri would have had to've been careful handling it and it's a tad disturbing he still have some around. That device is pure dark energy, while Yuri is a holy mage. It would harm him significantly if he mishandled it. Just because one is a Holy mage or a Dark mage doesn't mean they're the nicest or the worst of people. He used it to cover his tracks."

One of Kai's personal guard came in and handed Jun a milkshake as he overheard the conversation. He definitely was gonna report this to his boss.

*Hunter Association*

Yuri followed a few other people through the window, watching the drone put up a barrier. He almost wanted to laugh at how useful Alexei was here. When he got outside, he saw Amarius. The holy mage took off, following the drone, but not before leaving a message for the dark sorcorer he faced off with before. A message on his bow tie. "Enjoy yourself while you can." He also continued to monitor the signal and trace it. This Lucius guy was good...but not good enough.

Alexei saw the girl heal up and toss the man his weapons from a containor of some sort. As they split up, the dark haired man laughed as his tentacles followed the man. "Amarius, our target is coming through the front, red head, man with guns and a sword, red trench coat, an eye sore. His partner isn't even human, and thus isn't an option." He yelled as his left eye turned red to communicate with the dummy. His tentacles could easily provide support to the partner while he deal with her. And since those were as strong as zanpakutou, most she would be able to do was deflect them. Shame Christine wasn't with them...these two would have made a great match.

He shot down every bullet with his own, but his were made with his energy, leaving him no need to reload. And continued firing at her as she had to reload. He also closed in, and once in range, started to use the blades on his pistols, aiming to cut off her head. While also firing a shot here and there when the opportunity arose...

~

Yuri continued on in complete silence, tracing the signal. He soon found it. The man was smart enough to be on the move. That drone was going to be trouble too. He still followed it, while he kept track of the moving signature.

*Nearby the next day*

The green haired man took five hours just to have found the entrance to the damn thing. They hid it rather well. He could sense two people inside, but one was right there. Staring him down. An arrancar with the two human signatures. But he recognized the reiatsu, it was a harmless one.

"Greetings, miss. I'm from the Coalition. Mind if I join you in poking around this facility? There have been quite a few missing persons in the area, and this relates to a major case we're investigating."

He hoped she wouldn't mind his joining them. Especially considering how strong one of them felt like inside...

Disabling the bomb didn't take long. Gaige let Laura do the hard stuff while she jammed it. Yes, she could have done it herself and probably allot more proficiently but with it being jammed and the timer reset there was no real danger. Plus she figured Laura enjoy the chance to do something fun. With the bomb out of the way they could get to work.

Gaige hacked the PA system. "Liv can you hear me? there's a terminal by the front door, go to it and you can respond to me." Gaige said. Liv was near the front door so she'd have heard that. "Good good. The Facility's secure. I can't watch the camera all day, so will you watch the entrance? contact me if anyone comes here. I promise I'll make it up to you later, I found a great chinese place recently. My treat."

After Liv responded Gaige turned to Laura. "There's a terminal in the office over there. Do you want to help me scour every file in the datalogs? Or you can go looking around for physical evidence while I do that. If there's any left. It's kinda sloppy leaving all this stuff here, but then again I expect they though it would be a crator by now."

*Hunter's association.*

Serena rapidly reloaded as she litterally danced around his bullets. She was wearing a long flowly silver dress, so that was something. She even flipped away, kicking off a pair of high heels as he slashed at her. Landing crouched Serena dashed forwards and a nanoblade formed on her arm. She attempted to stab the man up under the ribs hopefully claiming one of his lungs with the attack before getting out of close range. She fired 3 heavy shots from reaver as she backed of.

Once she got some distance she ripped off the dress, with some annoyance since it was the first actually peice of human clothing she'd ever worn, to reveal a simple combat suit. "Don't think I have any reservations about killing you. I'm not as gentle as I appear." She fired a shot for the forehead and burst shot from storm aimed for the chest.

***

Damn it there was someone after him still he could sense them. Two people in fact. They were probably working together. Who were they? He needed to let the mountain know, now. This was bad. He made his way across the street and down a side alley in the opposite direction of his host position. It would take to long to destroy the drone, they'd trace him before it was gone completely. This was really bad.

***

"I see him. eye sore? No I think he's quite attractive. A pity." Amarius Jumped infront of the coalition guy and punched a random civilian from his path. "I need you to come with me. The less you struggle the less this will hurt." Two magic circles appeared on either side of the man and tentacles shot out to grab him.

***

The creature moved to a vantage point and watched the man who had killed him fight with a woman. Now was not the time to strike. He would wait a little longer, until the man's guard was down. Then he would attack and kill his killer. He just needed a good time.

*One day later.*

Gaige had just finished scouring every file in one folder and moved onto the next. So far, it was all about her mother's experiments. She even found one documenting the failed attempt to do what she'd done to all these people to Gaige. She could imagine her mother reading it in an emotionally detached voice.

There was other things too. Transfering powers, partial restoration of brain and bodily functions, enhancing powers. She'd even succeeded doing that on herself. She hadn't found anything when Liv contacted her over the terminal. Gaige hacked the camera and Pa system. "Let him in Liv. I think he'll be of some help."

Gaige went to meet him. "It took the coalition long enough to catch onto this gig." Was the first thing she said. "I suppose you wan't to know what exactly's been going on, well thats fine I'll accept any help you can offer and help you in return but don't think for a second I'll be handing control of this over to the coalition. She's my mother, she started this with me and I'm ending it. She dies. No prison. No pardons."

Laura followed Gaige through the abandoned husk of the building that had once been the hiding place of Gaige's mother. Once they found the bomb, Gaige instructed Laura to defuse it, while she jammed the countdown. It took a while, but Laura was grateful for the practice and she accomplished her task easily. Then, Gaige requested help with scouring the place for evidence. Laura decided to look for physical evidence. After all, too many cooks spoils the broth, as they say.

Meanwhile outside, Liv heard Gaige on the PA system. She made haste to the front door and found the terminal. "I'm here. The coast is clear. No sign of any trouble." Liv listened to Gaige's next order, sighing with disappointment. "Fine. But you owe me Ashe. And this Chinese place of yours better be a good one." She closed the line and disappeared into a Gargantua, reappearing seconds later with her favorite book, Of Hollow And Men. She sat down and began to read.

Laura was scouring the facility, looking for things. The place was pretty well picked clean. She then stumbled across a room in which lay what looked like a large fish tank. The tank was empty, and could have fit several people in it. There was a label on the window. It read, SUBJECT - 010: The Frozen One.

Hunter's Association

Tadatomo locked on to his prey with a tracking device he had concealed in his trench-coat. Following the signal closely, he began to Blur. He was gaining on his prey. All the while he was keeping an eye on the presence that was also tracking his target. He skidded to a halt as another man stepped out in front of him, sending a random civilian flying. To the man's request to go with him, Tadatomo simply responded, "No."

The man didn't move, but two magic circles appeared and flanked Tadatomo. Black tentacles emerged from both and attempted to grab him. Tadatomo Blurred straight up, leaving an Afterimage in his place. He then launched his Sword-Sling at the man, and Blurred after his original target, leaving another Afterimage. As he Blurred away at top speed, confident the man couldn't catch him, he called Kurato to his hand. He had been delayed, but it wouldn't stop him.

Swedish Facility - one day later

Laura finished her search of the facility and reported her findings upon returning to Gaige. She explained about the tank and some other things she had found. Gaige had just finished her dissection of the database. Laura was disgusted when she was told of the details that Gaige had found. "What a monster. No offence."

Liv was still sitting with her book, when a green-haired man arrived. Liv stood up instantly and regarded him closely. "Stop there. Identify yourself." After he finished talking, Liv agreed to take him to Gaige. She called ahead on the PA.

(could you please describe the shots next time? even if they're self explanitory?)

Bitch tried to stab Alexei in the ribs, only to have the blade deflected and a shot to her foot attempted. "Shame my own android isn't here. You two would have had a blast." He dodged the first one, knocked the second away with his pistol, and a dark magic circle consumed the third heavy shot. That definitely slowed him down.

She got more distance and spoke. He yawned. "Dark sorcorer. You think I will?" Again he knocked a bullet out of the sky and started shooting the others down. He had to weave a little to avoid the rest. He also fired a single shot, which moved almost laughably slow. Until it burst into several shotgun like pellets. A black magic circle appeared to her left and fired her own shot back at her.

~

Yuri sensed the other man's intent. He put up several basic shine spells right in front of him, each as strong and fast as a bala. He hoped that slowed him down enough that Amarius would occupy him properly. He continued to follow the drone until it started going the opposite direction of the real man. He chuckled. Too little. Too late.

He texted someone where the drone was heading. He was going after the real man.

~

A werewolf, slightly smaller than normal burst out of the building beside the drone, slashing at it. If it missed, it would have hit a lightpole, but also exploded. The golden eyed monster stared down on the robot. And stalked forward cautiously.

*one day later*

Alexander nodded and followed the miss. When they got there, he started immediately pouring over the database as the lass in charge spoke. As he looked through the research, his eyebrows furrowed. He didn't even have to go through everything. "These are heinous crimes against humanity, so we're in full agreement. Kai would not allow someone like this go free or even a possibility of escape. There are lines that just shouldn't be crossed. Didn't help that we were played like fools...we would have found this sooner if a distraction hadn't happened. My name is Alexander Kerensky, Chief of Research and Development. I occasionally go out on assignment like this.

Your mother isn't working alone. She has the help of two dark sorcorers. One likes to raise people from the dead, the other is in charge of this entire project...this fills in the holes we have. They plan on resurrecting a man named Alexei Romanov...and apparently empower him. In charge is his clone, which he has several of. Have you noticed a lot of commotion nearby? I guess he made an appearance to ambush our officers tracking down his younger brother...who also has it out for him, but had another priority. Hunters attacked his home and killed some of his family, so he's going after them first."

He found something else. A file that was heavily encrypted. It took him a couple minutes to hack it. And played the lone video on it. It showed the clone. Black hair, teenage looking, and bright cyan eyes. "This is Alexei Romanov Clone #2. In charge of the project Phoenix. Prime directive is the completion of the project, whether it is successful or not. Two clones are assigned to this project, but only one is active. This is my first log.

The goal is to resurrect and empower, perhaps even revitalize, the original Alexei. To assist me and the second clone should I die is an android named Christine. She's as human as an android can be. She has been most useful these past two years. The first obstacle is resurrection itself. Zombies aren't very viable. The man closest to have perfecting the proper spell sequences is an ancient dark sorcorer named Amarius. He was sealed up, so this makes it easy. I just freed him and has agreed to assist us. If all else fails, I can steal his knowledge of necromancy.

The second problem was empowerment. That wasn't working out too well until we found a woman named Hanna Ashe. I was impressed with her research and offered to help. Amarius took a special liking to her projects. If it weren't for my prime directive, I would have no doubt have a greater appreciation for it."

It went on to a different video. "Hello again. This is my second log. That idiot Amarius got us behind schedule. Doing a distraction. If that other idiot had notified me sooner, we could have bugged her ass out of here earlier before the Coalition had the time to creep up on her. Or she could have had a better awareness of things. Beyond that, the research is progressing nicely, after we got Amarius out of the Coalition's greedy little hands. Luckily Annabell won't be joining us...though it's a shame I couldn't kill her. I'm placing this here so I don't have to bother moving files.

The bomb should destroy everything anyway. Yuri is pissed off right now. Not that I blame him. This log is mostly current events. I was made aware just minutes ago by the Keeper that the original's soul actually hasn't moved on...and has in fact sealed itself lightly into several pendants. Originally one, but Clone #1 completed his project and has since been terminated, with some help with the notes I've provided for him from Ms. Ashe's experiments. Transfering knowledge was far easier than this.

I had Ms. Ashe move from here due to the next Hunter Association meeting/party thing being held nearby. I don't want her anywhere near a bloodthirsty super spy the original trained personally since that super spy was ten years old. I'll be on my way to the Mederterranean to do some research on my own and see what happens.

*the third and final video shows up, this clone appears slightly younger*

"Clone #3 here. The second one up and died fighting Annabell's boyfriend. I've arranged a meeting with baby brother. One of the Amarius Dummies will be with me too. We plan on capturing one of the Coalition officers on Yuri's tail for experimentation. Hanna was enthused at the prospect of a stronger subject. The Hunter's meeting is the venue. I've no doubt they're at least good enough to find that."

*looks off screen. pulls out a gun, and fires. The video is turned off.*

Alexander rewound that last video. And looked at the background, one of the billboards in fact. "What language does that look like to you? Oh, if you have no complaints, I'd love to tear down and destroy every file about these experiments. Who knows what could happen when this is stumbled upon by some other person with ill intentions."

She got shot in the foot, the energy of his weapon reacting against her, causing minor burns before it was dealth with by her Reiatsu shielding and healed by the nanites. she did not stand around to find out what the slow moving bullet would do, and barely avoided it as it burst. She rolled and fired one heavy shot at his left leg, and a 2 shot burst from storm at his right arm.

"Oh you have a pet do you? I'd love to meet her sometime." She said. She figured Humans would have machines of their own, but doubted their complexity to be on the same Level as a Serion. It would be interesting to see just how advanced they were. She glanced to the side just in time to see the circle and react, shooting her own bullet down with Reaver, while she fired another 2 shot burst towards the man's left shoulder.

She could sense Tadatomo getting farther away but someone had gotten in his path. She didn't know if she should go after him or not. Either way she would have to disengage or kill this enemy, or they would lose their lead. She fired another heavy shot towards his right leg. If she could slow him down she could slip away and vanish into the crowd. He wouldn't be able to follow her unless he had more of those crystals. Of course, she hadn't been counting on what happened next.

***

Lucius realised to late that he wasn't being followed. He cursed, as a werewolf engaged him. He disconnected from the drone. "How the hell did he find me!" The man said as he wheeled across the room for his gun and phone. He called the mountain. "Lucius, what's the matter?" The man asked.

"Sir I've been compromised. I'll Identify the man hunting you, then I'll do the right thing." He said. The mountain growled softly down the phone. "Hold tight, We're coming to get you." The man replied. "No sir.... Its over for me. It's been fun working with you, and I'll se you in hell..." There was a grunt... You will be avenged." He said, and hung up. Lucius crushed the phone to dust.

He turned his wheelchair towards the door, pistol in one hand he reached under it and activated a bomb. He rested his other hand on the arm of the chair next to the hidden detonator. And waited for the man to arrive.

***

Amarius laughed. He didn't take no for an answer. But the man was gone leaving an after image, then he tossed his sword. Amarius used a shield spell to block it, and noted the amount of power behind it. The man ran away. He seem some holy spells firing to delay the man. A black circle appeared and he stepped on it, and was teleported to the right of the man. He aimed a punch for the target's cheek and then fired some black orbs at him from both his back and front.

***

A blast of energy was fired from above as Serena considered her options, and it hit the ground between her and Alexei leave a chunk of spikey ice. Serena watched as a cloaked figure weilding a pair of black sword jumped from above at Alexei and started trying to slash him. She was mildly confused until it shouted. "You die today, Romanov!" She decided now was a good time to slip out, since the other man had what appeared to be a half insane hollow to deal with. "Don't question it, you'll only confuse yourself more.." She said as she jumped out a window and went after Tadatomo.

*swedish mountain facility.*

Gaige nodded. "She's a monster alright. I barely survived her experiment, the rest of these people weren't so lucky. You mean the Amarius incident? There's a few notes about how he helped her out alright... I've known about this place for a while but I was to weak to do anything since she tried to kill me when I tracked her down. I managed to get a tracking device on her, which is how we found it. Unfortunately she wasn't to deep in though to remember to change her clothes before moving shop."

Gaige offered a hand to Alexander. "Gaige Ashe, mercenary. My friends are Laura Fisher and Liv Firestorm." She said. He went on about all the chaos that had been happening. "I see. Well I don't really care about anyone else right now. I've got my priorities too. Until Hanna's dead I'm not for hire but after that we'll see. if you still need help we can discuss terms then."

She went back to hunting and let Alexander work away. She watched him with a camera though, just to be sure. And then she noticed him hack a video log. Interested she linked the display to her artemis and watched it too. She eventually got up to join him again as the second video came to a close. He asked her the language in the background, a quick search in her databanks confirmed it as chinese. "That's Chinese. Meaning the facility is in china... But.. Ha, oh you foolish woman!" she shouted.

She started to do something and talk at the same time. "They moved shop so fast they didn't have time to transfer all the files off this network, so instead they linked this one with their facility in china to do it from there. Thats why that third video log is here. If the link still exists, and I'm guessing it does because they expected this place to be a crater a few days ago, we can hack the new facility from here and find out where it's at. A quick hop into hueco mundo with Liv and we'll be in china in no time. We'll have to take her for some food though or she might get hungry at the facility..." She was doing this as she spoke and succeeded soon after, bringing the exact coordinates up on Alex's terminal for him. "And there you go."

When all was said and done, she nodded. "Leave nothing. I can re-arm the bomb too, erase this place from existance unless the coalition wants it. I'd prefer that but for now the research goes. The only proof that she ever existed will be me when this is over."

Tadatomo was growing slightly impatient as he traced his quarry. Then he noticed some sort of holy magic spells in front of him. Without slowing down, he drew Apollo in a flash and shot each of the orbs, detonating them. He stopped for a second, looking for the source of the spells. He spotted Yuri heading in the opposite direction of his original quarry. The split-second he stopped allowed Amaurius to catch up to him. He reacted too slowly to dodge the punch, which sent him flying for a second. Tadatomo righted himself quickly and shot the two orbs that were converging on him. He decided that a more direct approach was necessary. He aimed at Amaurius and fire the special ability of Apollo, which fired 30 bala-strength shots at him, with poor accuracy. Tadatomo then Blurred away at top speed, stowing Apollo while it recharged, and drawing Artemis in his left hand, with Kurato in his right. He decided to pursue Yuri. Something told him that Yuri knew far more about what was going on than anybody, and his tracker would keep an eye on the drone.

Swedish Facility

Laura and Liv stood silently, listening to the grown-ups talking. They both bowed in turn as they were introduced. At the mention of food, Liv perked up. "Don't worry, I can wait until we finish in China. Then we can go for food. Lots of it. It shall be grand. But for now, we have more important things to worry about." Laura piped up next. "That's right. We're ready to go when you are. Let's get this bitch. Uh... no offense"

Alexei's tentacles came into play, deflecting the heavy shot, though being knocked away. The clone spun away from the two shot burst while he fired another shot at her head. "Pet no, tool yes. There is a difference."

Small, black orbs with the strength and speed of a bala were fired at her from above. He shot down the second small burst, and matched the other heavy bullet with a stronger energy one. He also sent a dark wave at her, which would cut if it hit her. That's when things got weird. An ice blast slammed between them.

He reacted fast, deflecting the swipe and kicking at the hollow's side. The clone recognized it. "Oh for f*ck's sakes! Couldn't you have stayed in Hueco Mundo a while longer! I don't have time to deal with Annabell's hollowfied boyfriend! *cue left eye turning red* Amarius dummy, try to hold them off. I'm gonna have the original possess me...watch it." His eye turned back to normal.

The clone took out a black pendent. And spoke some words in latin while backing off. He was soon consumed in dark energy...which then exploded outwards, destroying the building in the shockwave that would be felt and visible for miles. What stood was a taller, more grown up version. The Devil's Sunrise dark sword in his right hand and the pistol in his left hand. (Temp 0 tier for four posts)

"Well...this is interesting...possessing a stronger clone doubled my strength...let's see how well you handle the original me..." In a blink of an eye, he slammed a foot at the middle of the hollow's back, while firing paired armor peircing shots into the robot's back. In a blur, he was off again.

In seconds, he was in front of the red haired man with a sword swing to his head. Behind him, a wall of black energy formed. "Nice meeting you personally, Amarius...though that is just a dummy I suppose...wanna see how long we can stall them? I can only maintain this possession for a very limited amount of time."

~

Yuri jumped down and mingled with a confused crowd, getting into a safe room and changing clothes, eye color with contacts, and a very convincing wig. He mingled with the confused and afraid crowd outside, holding his power in check thanks to his reiatsu suppressor. He knew this feeling...it was his real brother. The how and why plagued his mind lightly...he had a job to do.

None the less, he continued on to where the man was hiding. An apartment building. He stood just a few doors away from it. He read the man's intent. He planned on blowing himself up.

He knew what he had to do. From inside a neighbor's apartment, a red magic circle appeared, and created a hole through the walls. He took the opportunity and hopeful distraction, he fired through the door, with a solid estimate of where the man's arms would be when sitting. The silverette created a holy portal, and travelled behind the man. Hopefully with enough time to pull the man away from the wheelchair and throw him through the newly made hole in the adjacent apartment.

*Facility*

Alex took the offered hand and nodded at the ladies as they were introduced. And smiled at her logic. He came to the same conclusion. He was also getting a tad giddy. "We have no use of the facility. I'd rather be safe than sorry. Might as well use their own bomb to destroy it. While you reset it, I'll make my report."

He went outside and called Kai, telling them everything they learned. The experiments, their plan, the Amarius dummies that are apparently walking, their facility in China, his own game plan. He was warned about the woman that assisted in Amarius's escape. When the gals came out, he asked if they were ready. He also mentioned he's never been inside a Gargantia before and was looking forward to it.

Serena dodged the various attacks using her extreme speed. She didn't like the look of that energy. The man did not seem happy to see the hollow but she was. However as she was flying through the window there was an explosion and she was sent flying into the building across the road. As she was regaining her feet a black shape slammed into the wall next to her, and then she was shot in the back, which caused her to smack into the wall again. "Ow. ow, ow..." She said. She seen Alexai fly ahead.

The hollow stood up and looked at her. "He seems more powerful. How about we work together." She said as she her skin sealed up. She'd have to repair the damage later there was no time. "Kill... Yes!" He shot up and after the man. Serena followed. The other man who had been tailing Tadatomo tried to block the hollow and was forced to dodge a icy blast..

She reached the man next and he looked at her briefly before stepping on a black circle. He vanished. She felt him reappear next to Tadatomo. "I don't think so." She said. with a burst of speed she over took the hollow.

***

Amarius cursed as he was barraged by a hail of bullets. He couldn't shield all of them and ended up with burns and bullet holes across the less important parts of his body. Atleast it was just a drone, but he wouldn't be so weak if the real him was here. The man continued to flee. He got a mental message from Alexei, then there was an explosion and then Alexei was ahead of him. "I've got your- shit!" He dodged a blast of cold energy as a hollow shot past him.

He spotted the other one, the machine running towards him so he teleported to get ahead of both of them. As soon as he appeared two circles popped up around Tadatomo and tentacles emerged to try grab him to hold him still. And then something hit him from behind, full force, He didn't acutally budge because of his high strength but as he looked down he found a blade of some kind sticking out of his gut. "Oh...." He looked over his shoulder to see the machine at his back. "Leave my friend alone."

Serena blew the man's head off with one shot from her heavy pistol at the same time the hollow appeared and cut the tentacles grabbing at Tadatomo. He then Jumped away. Dropping the body Serena reloaded and took aim at Alexei as the hollow formed a second Ice sword. "You ok, Sir?" Serena said as she got ready to fight. The hollow growled.

***

Something appeared next to him, he raised his gun to shoot and there was nothing there but a hole into the next door apartment. A shot came through the door, taking off half of his hand on the detonator, and he was grabbed from behind. He was crippled but not helpless. A piece of metal on the wheel chair came to life and hit the detonator.

The blast launched him farther into the room and he slammed into a wall. Severely injured, he was unfortunately still alive. He didn't know what happened to who ever grabbed him. As he started to black out, a cocoon of black metal formed around him. He smiled. It would take a long time to cut through, even with specialised tools. Hopefully he would die from his wounds before that happened.

*Swedish mountain facility.*

"Are you sure Liv? Ok." She said. "Ok well then first things first we need to gather a few bits from my workshop. I wan't to set up another scan around the new facility before we go in. I imagine she's tightened security so we should know what we're up against." She said.

She nodded as Alex went to make his report. She laughed at Laura.. "Its fine, your only saying it like it is." When everyone was ready she got Liv to do her thing.

Tadatomo did not make it very far when he was once again assailed, but this time it was the man that had dropped in and killed the president and his wife. He was powerful. Tadatomo got Kurato up just in time, but the blow was so powerful that the force still sent him through the roof of a building below. "This is bad. I gotta move." He launched himself out from the busted remains of the roof and attempted to evade and resume his pursuit of Yuri. However, as was a recurring theme on this operation, he was caught again by Amarius, who tried to restrain him with black tentacles. The tentacles had him tight, he couldn't move. But then Amarius was stabbed from behind, a unique-looking blade protruding from his chest. Then there was a gunshot, and Amarius' head was gone, and Serena was standing behind him. The tentacles were cut by a cold blur. The girl inquired about his well-being. "I am undamaged, thank you. That was most impressive, friend." He bowed respectfully.

Tadatomo took a quick inventory of the situation. The man who had sent him through a building was far stronger than the two of them. Then he spotted a hooded hollow with two ice swords. "Who is that?!" There was something familiar about him, but Tadatomo could not place it. But with little time to waste, he fired the charged up shot with Artemis towards the Alexei/Clone, before holstering the gun and gripping Kurato with two hands and activated his Blur ability, which made him 50% harder to hit at range. Entering Final Stage, he Blurred around the Alexei/Clone leaving 5 Afterimages at regular intervals. While he did this, he channel energy into Kurato, sheathing it in light, and fire off all of his Lightslashers at Alexei/Clone, trying to track his movements with them if he moved. Each one had the power of a cero if they hit, and there were 5 of them. "Serena, now!"

Swedish Facility

Liv looked around at them all. "Right then folks. All aboard! Try not to get lost." She opened a Gargantua to Hueco Mundo. Laura turned to Alex. "If you have never been in one of these before, don't worry. Just keep moving and don't stop for anything. We'll be there before you know it." The folks all piled in and presumably didn't die on the way to Hueco Mundo. They popped out in the throne room of Los Noches. Arngrim Wolfcloak was sitting on his throne, reading a newspaper. Liv waved. "Hi daddy, don't mind us. Just passing through." She opened another Gargantua to Gaige's workshop. They arrived just in time for dinner. The doorbell rang. "Oh, that's dinner. If you don't mind, I ordered ahead. I didn't know what you guys wanted, so I just ordered two of everything. Don't worry, I'll finish anything you don't eat. Oh, and Gaige. I might have accidentally charged it to the shop account. But don't worry, I'll pay you back someday. Alright, dig in everyone." Liv proceeded to stuff her face like a visual representation of gluttony.

Alexei had a deadpan expression when the dummy got itself killed. Sighing, he readied himself. He cut the incoming blast in half, which then hit the long and large barrier. The red headed man continued his assault, making himself blurry. Even leaving afterimages. "Your still too slow..." He pointed his gun at the robot chick and fired round after round before disappearing to avoid the five energy slashes.

He reapeared directly behind the man, firing a large, dark energy beam the strength of a Gran Rey cero. From around the hollow, black magic circles appeared it, firing black energy needles that would attack its spiritual structure, if it, making it difficult to use its abilities.

Alexei disappeared again, doing a sweep kick towards the robot's legs. Then fired another bullet towards her stomach or back before blurring again. This time to her opposite side. And swung his blade down at her while firing bullet after bullet at the hollow.

~

That...was a little too close for comfort. Yuri had thrown himself along with the man towards his hole, and had activated his barrier spell to protect him. The man was still alive...barely. Yuri had started using his heal spell. It would save the guy in the end. Now, it was time to get that caccoon off of him too. He took out his vibro knife, and started work. The thing was still tough...he kinda wished he had learned the sawblade spell.

He knew Conner was beside him now...the drone must have been destroyed.

*Swedish Mt.*

Alex followed them. Upon entering Hueco Mundo he was shocked when Liv called their king daddy, who was reading a newspaper on the throne, with a blond boy sipping tea on the steps. He felt...odd for an arrancar. Next to said boy was a chess game. And the creature looked highly amused as they continued on their journey.

The bounto got the door and delivered them their food. He watched in amusement as Liv devoured their food. "You know...you remind me of one of my students...Jun Tomoshibi...he eats exactly like that..." He was amused by the arrancar.

He also needed to tell Gaige something. "Not that I'm worried, but someone did bust Amarius out of prison. Between Amarius himself and that woman, plus your own mother, do you think we have enough firepower with us? Amarius alone took two captain class fighters...best case, he was weakened after we took him into custody. You mentioned something about sensors...anything I can help out with?" He gave the two questions and would proceed to assist her with anything.